Blood Harvest (38 page)

With a sickening crunch, bones splintered as Lei ripped at the damaged area. She tore loose a huge chunk of flesh to open Kunnert’s windpipe then spat out the chunk of meat and bone before covered the wound with her mouth. She didn’t drink the blood flowing in a torrent; instead, she sucked on the man’s windpipe, forcing it to remain open to cause Kunnert’s own blood to run down into his lungs. Kunnert’s eyes widened in shock, pain and fear and he began to sputter and gurgle at the realization he was drowning on his own blood. He desperately grabbed hold of Lei’s hair trying to pull her off of him, his efforts too feeble to overpower her.

Lei pinned him further to the ground and tightened her lock around Kunnert’s body much like a serpent constricting its prey. She mouthed and tongued the inside of the man’s throat to prolong his agony. When Kunnert’s final undulations ceased, Lei removed her mouth from the man’s throat, gazed into his eyes and ground her pelvis into his groin.

“Come on, give it up baby.” She purred at the dying man who had gone hard under his jeans. She teased her hips in a circle over his hardness, holding his eyelids open as she pleasured herself faster and faster until her body released in climax at the same moment his body released his dark soul.

Lei ran her hands up and down her body briefly as her muscles contracted and released in post-orgasmic spasm. She rose off the body and glared angrily at the dead man while running her index finger over the stitched incision next to her navel, Kunnert’s earlier torture on her.

She didn’t hear Steve approach and jumped at the sight of him standing beside the body pointing Chris’ rifle at Kunnert’s head. Alpha came running to the loading dock as Steve and Lei walked back to the entrance.

“Kunnert?” Alpha said to Lei as he looked out to the street and the mess she had made of him.


Lei smiled, “He’s fucked.”

Chapter 54

As Alpha, Steve and Lei returned to the security station on the first floor Alpha announced, “All right, let’s go and tend to our people.”

Lei headed straight for the elevator along with the rest of the hunters in the lobby. Steve went back over to Chris’ body. He wasn’t sure why but he began to collect all of Chris’ things.

“Tracker?” Alpha called from the corridor by the elevator.

“I’ll be right up.” Steve’s voice broke slightly as he furiously collected and packed Chris’ computers into the carrying cases his friend had used to bring them in. Various tools were spread out over the security system panels; Steve snatched them up as if they might be blown away on some strange wind.

He finished his stuffing and paused. Uncharacteristically, Steve dropped to his knees and began sobbing, covering his face with his hands.

“Chris, I am so sorry,” he managed between sobs.

He felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “In moments like this boy, there aren’t any words that can truly give us comfort. But I will say I believe your friend has left his pain and worry behind him now. He’s gone to a better place where he will be safe and taken care of. Try to find some comfort in that.”

Every fiber of his being wanted to grab Alpha, throw him to the ground and start pummeling his face with punches.

Instead, Steve simply nodded and responded, “I want to believe that. I’ve never been overly religious.”

“Me either.” Alpha replied with a smile, “but I do believe what I believe.”

Steve smiled and the two men finished collecting Chris’ belongings and headed for the elevator. As they stepped inside the elevator car an envelope fell out of Chris’ computer carrying case. Steve bent down to pick it up and saw it was addressed to him. Alpha pressed the button for the tenth floor as Steve opened the envelope and read its contents.

Hey Steve,

This is a tough one to write. If you are reading this, it means one of two things. Hopefully, it means I was hurt, lost consciousness, and am now on my back heading to the hospital for some, “don’t worry Steve, he’s gonna make it, it’s just a flesh wound” type of emergency medical care. If not…well then… let my ex know the haunting is about to begin. Either way I think I’ve found something which may be of help in the resuscitation of the victims of the “stasis.”

See, the method of delivery putting them into the stasis condition was a photochemical reaction within the eyes, delivered to the brain via the optic nerve, which in essence short-circuited the normal neuro-electrical signals allowing one portion of the brain to communicate with another.

I know. I know. He make-um big words. But if the brain was in fact short-circuited maybe it can also be jump-started. I know on the surface this may sound a little crazy, but the method under which the human nervous system operates isn’t really all that different than an electrical system found in a car or a computer. If you could somehow send a jolt into the central nervous system strong enough to accomplish the jump-start, maybe the victim’s neurological pathways would be re-booted into normal operation.

What kind of jolt or how this jolt can be administered…Well, that I don’t know, but if you and yours can find a way to do it I believe it will be the cure.

Anyway, I just thought this info may be too important to lose, hence the letter. Also, if this is good-bye…Well, I’m not much for saying good-bye. I’ll say instead “see you again my friend.”

How’s next Thursday? I’ll look for you! I’ll make sure to haunt you a little after I scare the bee-jesus out of my ex.

Your friend with much love,

Chris

Steve was crying again as the elevator doors opened on the tenth floor.

Chapter 55

Alpha and Lei read the letter and began to discuss the “jolt” while Steve wandered into the room where all of the people in stasis were lying in their beds.

“What do you think the jolt he was talking about might be?” Lei asked.

Steve said, “I don’t think he knew. I think he was speaking hypothetically.”

“Well, maybe a search of the computer systems can tell us something,” replied Alpha, “although that could take quite a bit of time.”

Lei asked, “What about those heart paddles? You know the ones on TV where they yell ‘CLEAR’ then shock the guy and his body bounces in the air?”

“A defibrillator?” Steve said aloud. “I don’t know, isn’t it only supposed to affect the heart and surrounding muscles?”

“Do we have a defibrillator?” Alpha asked.

“I saw one in the lobby.”

“In the lobby?” Alpha and Lei both commented in unison as their puzzled faces turned to Steve. “Why would there be a defibrillator in the lobby?”

“It’s not all that unusual for big companies to have emergency defibrillators on the walls of their buildings like fire extinguishers. It’s actually saved quite a few lives since it became a customary practice in Los Angeles. Maybe if we set the device to its lowest setting…”

Alpha bolted for the stairwell.

“Wow.” Lei said with genuine incredulity. “Could the answer be that simple?”

Chapter 56

Steve and Alpha watched as Lei and some of the hunters began to revive the victims lying in stasis including the LAPD officers who had been taken the night of
The Inferno
incident. Alpha had found them in a separate area where they had been hooked up to feeding tubes and catheter bags. They were being used as test subjects for the medicines produced from the blood drawn from Alpha’s people. Pharmanetics techs had been infecting them with different strains of the flu and measuring the effectiveness of the drugs and the side effects with various dosages. Fortunately the facility did not appear to have access to the more frightening viruses such as Ebola or AIDS. They would have undoubtedly tested those as well.

“So is it always like that?” Steve asked Alpha meekly.

“Is what always like what?”

“Living blood. I…I had no idea how powerful…”

Alpha seemed to grow concerned. “How do you feel?”

“To say I feel completely satisfied for the first time in my life would be a serious understatement. I feel like a literal weight has been taken off my shoulders. My vision is clearer, each breath I take is more satisfying, my body feels nearly weightless and all sorts of small aches and pains I took for granted are simply gone. Poof!”

“Yes, it can be a very intoxicating first time experience.” Alpha said knowingly. “But part of the sacrifice we make in order to live unmolested from the majority of the world requires our kind to endure certain small ‘uncomfortables’ in exchange for our solitude.”

“Is that why Lei…”

Alpha regarded him briefly. ‘You mean the woman from the alleyway?”

“Yes.”

Alpha nodded. “The taking of living blood is very addicting. Lei had been in a position where she could act on her desire for living blood against an enemy and saw no reason to hold back.”

“Where’s that woman from the alleyway now?”

“She was with our healers when Pharmanetics’ people attacked, so I would imagine she was removed by her comrades. There was no sign of her body when we were searching for survivors. Either way she was one of them and I have little sympathy for her.”

Steve silently agreed with Alpha’s sentiment toward the people involved in this conspiracy. He looked out over the sea of people still waiting to be revived. He noticed a particularly surly man sitting upright in a chair away from the rest of the victims. When Steve realized who it was he immediately hustled over to the man.

“Captain?” Steve asked, “How are you feeling?”

“How do I look, Jacobs?” the Captain’s gruff response made Steve smile, anything less would have caused him concern.

“So what is happening around here?”

”Quite a bit has happened since you left
The Inferno
.”

”I’m sure. So tell me, what…” the Captain stopped himself mid-sentence as Alpha approached and stood beside Steve.

Steve saw the Captain reach for his sidearm only to be shocked not to find it at his side. Steve immediately spoke up to reassure the Captain.

“He’s with us, sir.”

The Captain’s eyes slowly drifted away from Alpha and fell back on Steve.

“You vouch for the guy?”

“Completely,” Steve said with absolute confidence.

The Captain considered this for mere moments before he spoke again, “Good enough for me, Detective.”

Steve felt his whole body relax at those words.

“Now Jacobs, I think I’m gonna need to lie down. Why don’t you start telling me a long, detailed, bedtime story?”

Chapter 57

Channel 3 News @ Nine:

Our top story tonight: Pharmaceutical giant Pharmanetics has been seized by Federal authorities and shut down today after overwhelming evidence of illegal human testing and white slavery surfaced from anonymous sources. Robert Keppler reports.

Robert Keppler:

In the past few weeks the Los Angeles Police Department, in combination with a task force from the federal government, has been investigating the corporation Pharmanetics after an anonymous tip led investigators to believe the corporation was conducting illegal drug testing on human beings. What makes this story all the more frightening is that it now appears the test subjects were not volunteers.

Police Captain Lincoln:

Our investigations have led us to uncover evidence that Pharmanetics was operating on the executive level with full knowledge the individuals being subjected to the human test trials were not participating voluntarily and had in fact been kidnapped by Pharmanetics own security force.

Robert Keppler:

These trials had not been submitted nor received the approval of the FDA, which is what prompted the FBI’s involvement in the case. However, as the case developed a frightening correlation to another case also being investigated by the Los Angeles branch of the FBI began to take shape.

Senior Agent William Van Ness:

We have been investigating the possibility a white slavery organization has been operating out of Los Angeles for some time. The investigation came to a conclusion today when the federal agents, working in conjunction with local authorities, stormed the Pharmanetics offices and made several arrests of key individuals.

Robert Keppler:

Many of the company’s employees were unaware of Pharmanetics sinister agenda. Executive officer Alex Daniels is unavailable for comment and police believe he has apparently gone into hiding as of this time. The state and national government have put out a nationwide alert for the arrest of Mr. Daniels and authorities are hopeful he will be in police custody very soon.

The names of the victims have not been released by police; however, the authorities are encouraged they have identified all of the people being held inside the building. They are all in good health and are cooperating with the police. They will soon be reunited with their friends and families.